 June 21, 2011 - 3:02pm | Devin, "I've planted a virus deep in Eve's core to go off 50 years after our departure." We have all heard of computer cores... but what are they exactly? What is considered "deep" in computer terms? Is this a human term to understand computers core processing commands? Like the boot operating system... |
 June 21, 2011 - 11:36pm | The way this term seems to be used in most sci-fi is as a reference to what we might call a hard-drive or a Core Information Storage Processor... an example of this on a large scale would be the Central Computer Core of the Enterprise... in which there are four Data Cores [iirc] but one operates as the Primary Core... Typically the term only references the main framework of information storage and processing in a large-scale computer, the size of a small building or moon...and is not traditionally accurate when refrencing a smaller personal computer, the size of a small car or postage-stamp (though sometimes used in a synonymous way for smaller computers, frequently in addition to the specified part; the main hard-drive and basic input/output system of the computer is still being 'targeted' by this term in most cases) Oh humans!!  We discover a galactic community filled with multiple species of aliens, and the first thing we think about is "how can we have sex with them?".~ anymoose, somewhere on the net... so... if you square a square it becomes a cube... if you square a cube does it become an octoid? |
 July 6, 2011 - 5:21pm | @TSC - I concur that 'Main Framework of Information Storage and Processing' may be separate areas, much as the current state of client/server computing we labour under today. There could be a 'central' area where all the processing (input/output) is conducted, with many areas/banks of storage (by many different facets - Military, Governance, Education, Research, Personal, ect) that are interconnected/referenced routinely. Data access speeds, even today, are getting really fast, and location/distance aren't factors in operation as they were before. What 'may' constitute a 'core' may be terminology - where all the processing may be completed may be the goal, but not where the data is stored. I've taken this meaning, much like a current computer's kernel/registry area in the programming that defines/establishes how a computer operates/functions, guidelines, and other routines for operation. One main building where all the processing is conducted, or, a controller location, and many separate mini-cores that handle/load-balance the system's processing needs, and to allow fall-over, and redundancy in case of the main controller's demise. @W00t - setting that kind of 'bomb' off with that much of a lead time would be difficult, at best. I imagine, even with today's PC (and the somewhat sorry state of internal software security), that as they become more 'aware' and possess self-logic, it would 'notice' some routine set so far off, and 'reason' it 'may' be a threat, and take appropriate actions. "If we knew what we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?" -A Einstein |
 July 7, 2011 - 7:42pm | We keep things simple out here in Jerseystan; the core of any computer is where the on/off switch is. My SF website izz: http://ragnarr.webs.com |
 July 9, 2011 - 6:17am | We keep things simple out here in Jerseystan; the core of any computer is where the on/off switch is.
:):):)I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
July 9, 2011 - 6:39pm | As a 'bot I have to be careful when I take a dump. Wouldn't want to dump the core by accident.  Cores would have backup power sources and could only be shut off with commands and/or codes. I doubt you'd find a wall switch or button to depress! |
July 10, 2011 - 7:56am | @wOOt: "cOOr" dump  I guess what I was trying to say (simply) would be like in the movie 2001 S.O., shutting H.A.L. down while listening to a crappy rendition of the tune "Daisey" (not to say that any other rendition of that song doesn't conjure up fecal adjectives). The guy was in the computer core of H.A.L. [scene from the hit sci fi movie "2011 A Frontier Odyssey] [toilet] "Good Morning wOOt." [wOOt] "Good Morning Mr. John 9000." [toilet] "What are you doing wOOt?" [wOOt] "Just a simple core dump Mr. John." [toilet] "Will I survive wOOt?" [wOOt] "Not very likely Mr. John." [toilet] "D a i s e y , D a i s e y,... tell....me....ugh...won't you...oh geez...do.."] My SF website izz: http://ragnarr.webs.com |
July 10, 2011 - 11:41am |  I'm sorry wOOt. You loaded the ammo into my brain; I just pulled the trigger.My SF website izz: http://ragnarr.webs.com |
July 10, 2011 - 1:10pm | The example of HAL is different because we're talking about not just a super computer but an AI. Bowman was actually pulling the memory banks of the AI not killing the computer. But while we're discussing it a 2010 style recovery and restart of an abandoned ship could be a good adventure seed; not the actual 2010 module just the idea of recovering, righting, and restarting a ships computer and other associated problems. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
July 23, 2011 - 6:07am | So basically it depends on the system in question... Realistically it means [insert techno-babel] and your B.L.T. Drive is on the fritz... order a Nugget Interface Packet from The Colonel as an Alt Esc Function and you have less B.L.T. problems...  POP-Container Stack-Overflow in Aisle-Six!!! Someone Clean up the Soda Please!!! I was taking the sci-fi definition of the word, as the term is used in those fictions and the 'group definition' across multiple uses by different creators, and in the case of larger systems mostly, as smaller systems like handhelds and desktops really don't have much of a 'core' worth defining... As a sci-fi definition it's pretty much a frag-it-this-way or frag-it-that-way choice in smaller systems and a 'core' isn't an issue... In larger systems, HAL's Memory Core, Logic Core, Interface Core, and Processing Core, may have been different rooms, from what I recall but I don't have those schematics handy... The Enterprise Ship's Computer has four Data Storage/Processing Cores, Ellingson Mineral Company Supercomputer had a 'Modern Mainframe' architecture and The Core referenced the Central Operations Room, which is directly beneath their feet when in the "War Room" used for security interface control and emergency maintenance, W.O.P.R., R.I.P.L.E.Y., and Skynet, are each constructed differently... but there is an amazing amount of pseudo-science available on them for the Sci-Fi P-IT guys to geek-out on... I have seen the Discovery One schematics but never owned them... A Large multi-networked system will not have 'only one' BIOS (basic input/output system) but multiple redundant 'core' hardware components that perform a similar task on a larger scale... and the registry is a software component, not a hardware component, run on each terminal separately... The KERNAL is Commodore's name for the ROM-resident operating system ( a sort of hard-wired OS) in the old PET ( I miss my PET  she got all cracked up from an over heated motherboard...) and was a nod back to that name in the movie Hackers... there were a lot of obscure Geek-References and Knowing-Nods made in that movie... more modern kernals are rarely monolithic, and somewhat below the scope of anything with the Sci-fi Trope-ish Computer Core.In any-case, everything that I have ever heard anyone suggest a "Malicious Deep Core Attack" refers to in a real-world system, is usually something that can be fixed in about five minutes at any scale, or will be ignored by the redundancy of larger scale networks... So again, for the sake of game and fiction, I turn to the sci-fi definement of Computer Core, as one of a Central Component of Specific Function(Core Data Storage, Data Exokernel Efficiency Processing Core, Interface Control Core, Advanced Core Transfer System of Logic and Intelligent Kernal Events, AI Data Storage Core, Core Sub CONtrol and System High-level Use Storage... etc... with no real limit on how one Mega-Comp System, Cyber-Comp Network, or whatever you like calling it, is divided differently from another...) and likely 'only one' of 'several redundancies' of that function in the larger system, but 'possibly' the only component of that function accessible to a given physical region, until rerouting can occur (which may take minutes or may take days, rarely ever permanent unless physically attacked). Simply put: attack the core, temporarily knock out a region of the systems functionality to some degree... that is the trope standard... typical variation; hide a time delayed attack on a core system in the main data core... effect is the same at the designated time, but with the risk of being discovered and traced back to the infiltrator before the trigger, as any time-bomb can be. Oh humans!! We discover a galactic community filled with multiple species of aliens, and the first thing we think about is "how can we have sex with them?".~ anymoose, somewhere on the net... so... if you square a square it becomes a cube... if you square a cube does it become an octoid? |
that was... bad. ;-)